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November 17 Open Thread

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Links:

• Some news from CALPERS: They will tighten rules on disclosure to “placement agents.” They are also thinking of allowing “salesman” to now pitch them directly.

• There is some dispute over whether Asm. Bill Emerson is eligible to run to replace Sen John Benoit in the 37th Senate seat.

• Tom Campbell made some funnies at an appearance in Sacramento. Apparently, he’s in fact not a fantastically wealthy soup heir.

• Some good news from the Port of LA, shipping is up.

• The 405 widening project in OC is causing some concern since LA County isn’t going to match the widening, repeating the bottleneck effect experienced on I-5 at the LA/OC line. The real issue here isn’t just that OC is still in the 1960s when it comes to transportation planning, but the absence of state funding for big projects leaves it up to counties, producing regional problems like this.

• The recession is hitting California’s migrant communities so hard that families are sending remittances from Mexico to the US instead of the other way around, despite the fact that Mexico’s economy isn’t exactly strong. Further sign that North America is a much more integrated society and economy than the artificial borders would have us believe – and further sign that the “immigrants” are actually intending to make the US their home. More power to ’em, I (Robert) say, literally and figuratively.

• Dan Walters finds it amusing that we “young” folks at Calitics are annoyed by Jerry Brown’s weathervane theory of politics, where he just blows with the prevailing winds. I don’t think Brown is going to find it very amusing when the progressive base isn’t motivated to turn out for him in November 2010.

5 thoughts on “November 17 Open Thread”

  1. the AD-72 special election will go to a runoff between frontrunner Chris Norby (R) and John MacMurray (D).  With 63% of precincts reporting, Norby’s got 36.5% of the vote, and MacMurray’s got 27.5%.  Linda Ackerman (R) is coming in with 19.9%.

    Of course, it’s difficult to see a path to victory for MacMurray in a district like this, in a runoff with Norby.

  2. Some of us at Calitics REMEMBER the day after Prop 13 passed and how Jerry immediately did the most fantastic pirouette into a position of having been the author of it. Up until it passed, he’d been a total opponent.

    From my vantage point, the progressive BASE of the party is not about to be suckered in again with vague promises of change and hope. In fact, HOPE is the latest casualty of our incumbents’ drive to please their lobbyist contributors. Those wondering why the independents abandoned the Democratic party in the Nov. elections need to take a good look INSIDE their own party.

    ENRAGED by the DEMOCRATIC incumbents who voted FOR the Stupak amendment to strip women of their right to control their own bodies, progressives I know want to see EVERY BLUE DOG out there face a strong PROGRESSIVE opponent–one who has a spine and will vote with the grassroots.  

    BACA, CARDOZA, and COSTA — California’s Hall of Shame winners. Here’s the link to ALL of the Dems who betrayed us: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/200…

  4. The article misses the point of the 405 “widening” which is really designed to eliminate a pinch point where the 405 narrows and the commuters from LA get bogged down every day; it reconfigures lanes within the existing ROW.

    It’s qualitatively very different from the 5 widening.

    But really, nobody knows where the 2 billion to pay for this project will come from and by the time this project is ready to build, the transition from cheap oil will make it superfluous.

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